The secret to long-lasting love
Val Davison marked Valentines Day by surprising her husband of 62 years with roses.
The 85-year-old lives with husband Adrian, 89, at Temuka’s Wallingford Rest Home.
Their rooms are separated by a long corridor but she snuck into his room yesterday – the morning before Valentines – to leave two roses in his mug.
The couple will join millions of people around the world in the annual celebration of romance today.
‘‘She got me in trouble,’’ Adrian joked.
‘‘You’re not allowed to put flowers in anything you eat or drink out of.’’
Adrian said his secret to a long-lasting marriage was to keep the other person laughing.
‘‘It’s my ambition to see everybody happy. I can go round and get her laughing and carrying on.’’
Val’s own secret was to ‘‘never go to bed with an argument’’.
‘‘That was one thing that the Reverend said to us before we got married. It stuck with me.’’
She also advised couples to ‘‘make the most of what you’ve got’’, pointing to their situation of no longer being able to share a room.
‘‘It upset me at first but we see each other all during the day. We have our meals together,’’ she said.
‘‘He comes and says good morning, and I come in the evenings to say good night. ‘‘I’m an owl and he’s a lark.’’ Adrian joked: ‘‘I don’t mind it [having separate rooms]. I get more peace.’’
The couple met in 1951 at the former Timaru College 50th reunion, while Val was in her last year at school.
After sharing a dance, Adrian wrote to her asking to take her out. Val was keen – but at age 17, her family deemed her too young to accept the invitation.
‘‘I had to meet him in town just to let him know I couldn’t go with him,’’ she said.
Adrian said by chance they met again 18 months later. He was escorting his mother to hospital and Val was a district nurse.
‘‘She [his mother] was struck with lightning when I was two and she was always crook after that,’’ he said.
Val soon received another letter and the pair have been inseparable since, having four daughters, five grandchildren, and two greatgrandchildren.